tone of virginity,--chill and pure. During
far and difficult voyages it is placed in the mouth to allay thirst. It
also cureth leprosy and all malignant growths. It bestoweth clarity to
thoughts. The priests of Jupiter in Rome wear it upon the index finger.

"The king of all stones is the stone Shamir. The Greeks name it
Adamas,--which signifieth, the invincible. It is the hardest of all
substances on earth and remains uninjured in the fiercest of fires.
It is the light of the sun, concentrated in the ground and cooled by time.
Admire it, Sulamith,--it playeth with all colours, but in itself
remaineth translucent, like a drop of water. It shineth in the darkness
of night; but loseth its radiance, even in the daytime, upon the hand of
a murderer. The Shamir is tied to the hand of a woman tortured in heavy
travail with child; and it is also put upon the left hand by warriors
setting out for battle. He that weareth the Shamir findeth favour with
kings and hath no dread of evil spirits. The Shamir driveth the mottled
colour off the face, purifieth the breath, giveth quiet slumber to
lunaticks, and induceth a sweat curative of near proximity to poison.
The Shamir stones are male and female; buried deep in the ground they
are capable of multiplying.

"The moonstone, pale and mild, like the shining of the moon,--it is
the stone of the Chaldaean and Babylonian magi. Before divination it is
placed under the tongue, and it imparts to them the gift of seeing the
future. It hath a strange tie with the moon, for during a new moon it
groweth chill and shineth more brightly. It is beneficial to woman
during that year when from a child she is becoming a woman.

"Wear thou this ring with a smaragd constantly, my beloved, for the
smaragd is the favourite stone of Solomon, King of Israel. It is green,
pure, gay, tender, like grass in the spring of the year, and when one
gazeth at it for long the heart waxeth radiant; if thou wilt look upon
it in the morning, all the day shall hold no hardship of thee. I shall
hang a smaragd over thy night couch, my comely one; let it drive evil
dreams away from thee; let it lull the beating of thy heart, and divert
black thoughts. Serpents and scorpions come not nigh him that weareth a
smaragd; but if a smaragd be held before the eyes of a serpent, water
shall flow from them, and continue flowing, till it go blind. Pounded
smaragd, together with camel's milk, is given an empoisoned man, that
the poison